The Shrimps secured a last-gasp point at Bradford on Saturday thanks to substitute Kevin Ellison's 12th goal of the season in stoppage-time.

However, Bentley has revealed that the club's leading scorer has been troubled by a back injury recently, which prevented him from starting the game.

"He has been very good for us and has become a great signing, with Saturday's goal his 12th of the season in all competitions," Bentley told Sky Sports.

"He isn't right at the minute because he has got a sore back, but hopefully that will be sorted out once he has seen a back specialist this week.

"What a great player to have on the bench, even if he isn't fully fit, because he always looks like scoring and I was delighted for him to get one against his former club."

Frustrating

Amongst the five substitutes was young attacking midfielder Joe McGee due to the shortage of players at Bentley's disposal, but he is hoping to strengthen as soon as possible.

He added: "There's no one else I could have picked to be honest because we have got a small squad of only 20 senior professionals and then you've got Paul Scott out injured for the past 15 months, Kieran Charnock has gone down to Fleetwood and Izak Reid has had a hernia operation, so we are down to just 17 now.

"That doesn't give me many options to put on the bench, so I've had to dip into the youth team at times and it was great for him to be on the bench Saturday.

"We are trying to strengthen all the time and there is room to strengthen, with targets identified.

"At our level we are competing with some big strong clubs, with Bradford being one of them, with Premier League stadiums and facilities, and something we aspire to do.

"At the moment it has been a bit frustrating due to financial reasons or location reasons, but we will keep trying our best to bring extra bodies in."